First Contact
by Du Hjarta Skulblaka
Summary: The story of two women, one human and one turian, set during the First Contact War. Lieutenant Korra Valerius finds herself stranded on an unknown world after hostile contact with an alien race, with only a single human to learn from. OCs, inspired by someone else. May or may not be continued based on interest.
1. Chapter 1

_a female turian who is a special ops soldier for the turian army is fighting in the first contact war with the humans when her unit all gets killed and she survives because a female human finds her and takes care of her and nurses her back to health. they totally fall in love. _

_meggerzgbytesbioware (Tumblr)_

Challenge accepted.

* * *

_"Open communications with alien craft! Demand that they cease all hostilities immediately, we have jurisdiction."_

_"Vessel is refusing hails, Captain. Their systems are not equipped with translation software."_

_"Captain! Gun ports are open! Repeat, weapons are targeting us!"_

_"Blast it, what the hell do they think they're doing?!"_

_"Sir, enemy has breached shields, decks 3 to 6 are taking heavy damage. "_

_"Damnit, get everyone to the escape shuttles!"_

_"It's no good...no time...hull strength dropping...Captain, we-"_

* * *

Korra's eye's snapped open and she took a sharp, jagged breath. Pain shot through her body as a hacking cough wracked her, tiny spots of blood catching on her talons. _I'm alive. _Why did that come as a surprise? She remembered panic, a sense of urgency, fire, and then...

Memories of the past few hours suddenly came rushing back to her. She was an operative assigned the _Corona_, one of the cruisers sent to investigate the destruction of an apparently alien ship. Before they could investigate the situation, more of the unfamiliar ships had appeared and attacked without warning. She had been lucky, she had been on her way to the bridge when the attack struck and so had been near to the escape shuttles. She had helped everyone she could but had been forced into one herself when the emergency air locks closed over the exit doors. The rest of the deck was already lost.

Her rasped breathing filled the small room as she glanced around, searching for reasons. Anything. She reached up and slapped her harness weakly, just enough to release it and causing her to slump to the floor. She hissed with pain as a worrying crunching sound came from her chest. Her neck hurt too much to look down, but from what she could tell her armor was intact. At least all she had to worry about were internal injuries, then.

She hauled herself to the other side of the shuttle, only now realising that it was tilting to one side. Gravity in effect, she knew she was planetside at least. She could make out a light filtering through the small view port, but something was blocking it from the outside. She tried the ship's computers, but no luck, obviously her crash landing had somehow damaged them.

_This isn't right,_ she thought to herself. The shuttles were designed to drift in space until another ship could pass them by and pick them up. They auto-corrected their trajectories if they came too close to an atmosphere unless directed to do otherwise, She should have woken up in space. Unless...

_Unless they shot me too._

That would explain it...a glancing shot would have been enough to take out several systems and could have provided enough velocity to trigger the collision, it could also explain some of her injuries. But...firing on an escape craft? _What kind of monsters are we dealing with here...?_

Groaning, she slumped back against the wall and belatedly had her suit apply medi-gel to the worst affected areas. After a few minutes it was enough to dull the pain, but each breath still made her wince. She had to get out, find out where she was. Dreading the thought of attempting to stand, she spent a few moments fiddling with her omni-tool in the hopes of picking up some stray signals. To her dismay, she did locate a few local radio transmissions but none of them made sense to her, meaning her translator was unfamiliar with the language. She clicked her mandibles with worry, uncertain what to make of that. Unable to delay any longer, she grabbed onto the walls and pulled herself to her feet, the medi-gel helping somewhat. A few shaky steps brought her to the escape hatch, but she hesitated. There was no telling what was waiting for her out there and she was in no fit state for a fight. Still, her omni-tool told her the atmosphere was breathable and she only had limited supplies. She had to get outside, find a radio signal to latch on to and call for help.

Taking as deep a breath as her battered lungs would allow, Korra opened the door.

* * *

Sara couldn't believe her eyes. She had been sat huddled under a blanket in an open field, staring at the sky. It was a cool night but the young doctor had been excited to see the meteor shower due that evening, and so she sat ready with her telescope, an old model since the higher grade ones were almost impossible to get out on the colonies. She had frowned when she thought she saw lights in the sky, it had been a little earlier than scheduled. She was dumbstruck by what she had watched unfold. Through the telescope, she had watched what she had taken to be a large meteor fall to the ground, even feeling the impact through the ground. That meant it was close, but it hadn't reduced in size at all while entering the atmosphere, she was sure of it. Curiosity had overtaken her, and she had immediately started sprinting int he direction of the fallen star.

Now she stood panting for breath, staring at the downed ship. It was unlike anything she had seen before, nothing like any of the Alliance vessels she had seen while travelling to the colony. She noticed some symbol she didn't recognise on the hull, almost hidden by the massive dent in the side. If she had to guess, she would say that a passing meteor had collided with the ship and caused it to crash. She hesitated a moment, glancing back at the distant lights of the colony; really, she should go and get help. Inform the local alliance personnel. But she was a doctor, there could be men and women trapped inside this thing that needed her help. Assuming she could even open it.

Eventually, instinct as a healer took over. She approached the ship cautiously, feeling the heat coming off of the metal. Slowly, she reached out to touch what looked to be the door panel-

Only to have it slide open, revealing...she didn't know. Some _thing_ standing there. It was green, scaled, wearing a space suit, it ticked every box on the alien questionnaire. She screamed, she couldn't help herself, and jumped back a few steps, terrified for her life but curiosity preventing her from fleeing.

She thought she saw the creature's eyes widen, heard it croak out a few strange noises. She shrank back further still when it reached out a hand and showed curved. pointed claws in place of fingers. It took a single, lurching step towards her, but before she could run, it collapsed to the ground.

* * *

_Something I wanted to write inspired by a post I saw on Tumblr. May or may not be continued, depending on the interest for two OCs in the Mass Effect universe.  
Thanks so much for reading!_


	2. Chapter 2

_I love that people actually read this! I'll do my best to make something you'll enjoy. Worth mentioning though that I'm not up on my biology, pretty much everything to do with turian anatomy and their dextro amino acids will probably be made up._

* * *

_Dalarus grinned at her from across the hold, his fists raised in a casual fighting stance, a mockery of the stiff defensive posture she currently held. Her brother had always been reckless, but he accused her of being too serious. Perhaps between them they struck a balance. Their personalities showed as they sparred, him taunting her and trying to lure her into an opening, keeping his distance, and her never taking her gaze away, keeping her block held, waiting for the perfect strike. Eventually, as always, he grew bored. With a frustrated grunt, he aimed a swing at her head, Reading the intentions in his body like a book, she sidestepped jut enough to make the swing brush by her left shoulder, allowing her to grab his arm and haul him to the ground. _

_He clicked in dismay and stared up at her, showing her a defeated smile. "Alright sis, you got me. Help me up?" He reached a hand up hopefully. At last smiling herself, Korra nodded, reached down- only to find herself sprawled on the floor as he pinned her in a neck hold. A cry of laughter went up throughout the hold, the handful of off-duty soldiers watching clapping on her brother, here and there a few shaking their heads slightly. _

_Dalarus jumped back several feet as he let go, arms raised in a peaceful gesture "I concede! You beat me! Just making sure I have _some _honour left." Korra just shook her head at her elder brother, eventually rolling her eyes and moving to give him a hug, spurred on by the crew._

_Flash forward a few years and she was dragging him out of a burning wreckage. His left arm was mangled beyond repair, his body badly burned. He had always been reckless. _

* * *

Korra moaned softly as she began to come around, the dream reluctant to fade away. The memory of her brother's scars seemed to linger in her mind even as she opened her eyes in an attempt to clear it. Her lids made a barely audible click in the near silent room. Slowly, she became aware that the pain was not quite as bad as it had been when she passed out. _Passed out? When did..._

The alien! She had seen it, standing right at the door! It was unlike any of the Council races, though it did perhaps bare a passing similarity to the Asari...far too pink to be one though, and it had the strangest red fur stuck to it's head. She had been delirious with pain when she saw it, it was entirely possible she was imagining thing. She had managed to give a strangle cry for help before hitting the ground.

A new thought suddenly chilled her. Could this be one of the aliens she had been sent to investigate? It seemed highly likely, she would have hit herself for not thinking of it sooner had she not been through enough trauma already. If it were true, then she was in enemy hands; the first prisoner of war. They might even want to dissect her or-

that particular train of thought was(gratefully) interrupted by a clattering out of her view. It was followed by an unintelligible murmur, and then a blur of colour as something passed over her. She instinctively closed her eyes, waiting a moment before opening them again, hoping that this time they would adjust. Something swam into vision above her head, a muddy pink colour against the grey of the shuttle interior. She could hear mumble words, some she couldn't understand but the soft sound of the voice soothed her.

"you...wake...no...need to rest...lost...help you.."

She wondered if she had been drugged. That would explain why her head felt so heavy. Unable to make sense of her current situation she chose to take the voice's advice and drifted back into a troubled sleep.

* * *

Sara breathed a small sigh of relief as the creature's eyes snapped shut once more. Those eyes had scared and fascinated her...they looked like a reptiles, and yet she could see the intelligence in them. The pain and confusion as they searched the room. They were oddly beautiful, an almost opalescent blue with golden flecks. Part of her was sad to see them closed.

She pulled the rough military issue blanket over the alien's nude, bandaged form and sat back on her heels, chewing her thumb in worry. The last couple of hours had been something of a blur; after seeing the creature collapse, a switch inside her seemed to have been pressed and she had jumped into action, fear forgotten. Whatever this was undoubtedly wasn't human but it was clearly alive, intelligent, and in need of her assistance. She had been forced to drag the unconscious being back into the ruined shuttle as it was far too heavy for her to carry back to her medical lab. A brief look over had been enough to tell her that she would need more equipment to treat it properly, but there was no question of trying to move it. Eventually, she had ran back to her lab on the edge of the colony and thrown some equipment into the back of her buggy. Luckily, almost everyone had been asleep and she had gone unseen. She wasn't expected back until the following morning anyway, she could afford to be away for a while.

Removing the creature's armor had proven surprisingly easy- for all the difference in design it was essentially similar to human hardsuits, plates strapped over a light undersuit. Examining the injuries proved to be more difficult. While humanoid, the creature was something altogether different anatomically. It's body was covered in deep green plates, similar to scales but heavier, almost metalic. The skin beneath and around them was tough and leathery, a slightly lighter olive green colour. Her face (she was fairly certain it was female, from her examinations) was fascinating...almost as though she was wearing a mask, but she had seen it twitch as she slept. There were dark blue lines beneath her eyes and running down her mouth, though Sara couldn't be sure if they were natural or artificial. A quick scan from her omni-tool confirmed that her biology was fundamentally different at a core amino level. Though she suspected there would be food and other supplies suited to the creature stored in the shuttle, she didn't trust herself to identify it correctly without help.

Fortunately, medi-gel and a handful of other drugs were still safe. It was obvious that the alien had internal injuries, a punctured lung and several broken ribs if the initial scan was anything to go by. The rest seemed to be largely superficial, though it was difficult to tell how much effect all that armor plating had. She hoped she hadn't made too much of a mess of things...the creature really needed surgery but there was no way to do that in the shuttle. She would need to wait until she woke again, and hope that she wasn't hostile.

* * *

When Korra finally awoke again, a thin stream of orange light was filtering in through the viewport. She felt somewhat more rested than before, but still as though she had been run over by a group of angry krogan. This time, she made a point of staying quiet, grimacing at the sharp ache in her chest as she slowly sat up. Looking down, she was surprised to find her armor remove and her chest tightly bound._ Broken ribs then. Thought as_ _much. _

Opposite her, the strange alien was hunched up in a ball, apparently also asleep. Korra took a moment to study it, since it's species was likely responsible for her landing here. It had those same peculiar chest bumps that asari had, leading her to guess that it was a female. It- or rather, she, did not seem to possess any particular natural defenses. No armor, no claws, certainly no evidence of any particular strength. It's body looked soft and fleshy, easily damaged. Really, the only distinguishing feature seemed to be the unusual skin colour and that long red fur on the top of her head.

Still, she knew better than to underestimate her. She had worked with enough Salarians to know that small and squishy did not mean defenseless. She kept one eye on the sleeping woman as she located her suit, pulling it over her legs. It hurt too much to move her shoulders so she let the top half hand around her waist for the moment. As she grabbed her omni-tool and slipped it over her hand, the tiny machine beeped and apparently startled the alien. Korra instantly tensed, hissing partly out out of pain, partly for intimiation.

"You...y-you're awake..."

Korra blinked, surprised that she could understand. "What are you? What are you speaking? I don't recognise it."

The small creature shrunk away slightly, eyes wide. "I...I don't understand you...you're speaking aren't you? You're intelligent..."

Korra fowned, eyeing the woman for a moment. She slowly raised her left arm, trying to make the movement as non-threatening as possible, and checked her omni-tool. As she had suspected, the beep had been to confirm that the tools translation software had managed to put together a working dictionary based on the radio signals she had left it scanning. It must have uploaded it directly to her biotic implant. _I can understand you. But you only hear grunts._ None of the turian native languages were known for their eloquent sound- there was a reason her species had such rasping voices. She was going to have to do this the hard way, learn the language based on the translation.

"Aah...waake..." She croaked, struggling a little with the unfamiliar speech. The girl understood though, she saw it in her eyes. She lowered herself to sit on the bench that had been her makeshift cot, trying to ignore the pain and remember the guidelines for first contact. It had been a long time since they had been needed, she couldn't remember the details. She would have to fall back on instinct. Raising her hand, she tapped her forehead and said "Korra." She then pointed one hooked talon at the woman. "Y...yoo?"

Sara's eyes widened in shock. It..._she_ was speaking to her! "You...you understand me?" The creature nodded once, a sharp, birdlike motion. "Korra? Is that your name?" Another nod. The strange mandibles next to her mouth twitched, though she wasn't sure what that meant. "My name is Sara! I'm a human...do you know where you are?"

Korra shook her head, frustrated. How could she explain what had happened without a knowledge of the language? It would take her days to study what her translator had learned in mere hours. Still, she was communicating. It was a start. The human seemed just as clueless about the situation as she did, but at least she seemed friendly. "Sara?"

The girl nodded curiously, their eyes locked. She couldn't believe what was happening to her. The turian gestured to the bandages across her chest, then tilted her head questioningly. "Oh! Of course...I...you were injured. From the crash, I mean. Your body is so strange...I think you have some internal injuries though. I can't treat them here, but I couldn't carry you back to the med-lab...I gave you some painkillers that I thought would work, but..." she trailed off for a moment, swallowed, then gathered her thoughts. "You nee surgery, Korra. I think I can do it, but I don't know for sure. I'd need you to come back with me. I don't know how the others would react to you though..." She winced. She knew _exactly_ how Corporal Daniels would react. Claim it for the Alliance, interrogate, probably have her do the autopsy afterwards...

There was a long pause. At last, Korra gave a rattling sigh and nodded. She couldn't stay in this shuttle if she wanted to survive. She would have to trust this strange, shy human.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks so much to the people leaving reviews! You guys are really driving me to keep this going and work out a longer story than my initial concept of just a few chapters.  
__I'm actually amazed it's made sense so far considering I've been doped up on painkillers for the past few days. Hopefully now it'll only improve._

* * *

The unrelenting rumbling of the buggy rattled through Korra's body, leaving her with a constant ache. She lay slumped in the back seat, Sara's blanket covering her totally. Her eyes where shut tight against the increasing glare of the sunrise, the thin material doing little to block out the light. The footwell beside her was packed with some of the shuttle's emergency supplies, first aid kits and dextro rations she had pointed out to the human. A fraction of what the ship held, enough for a few days.

She hissed in pain as the vehicle jumped after hitting a rock, curling up into a fetal position. She was vaguely aware of Sara making some apology, too focused on suppressing her pain to pay attention. The human had said she would make an effort to make the ride as gentle as possible for her, but that she would need to go quickly to return to her colony before the rest of her people awoke. Korra understood her want for secrecy and supported it, at least until she could get her strength back. She knew little of these people, but she got the feeling that Sara was afraid. Of what, she wasn't sure, but she knew she was at the heart of it.

There was a horribly tense moment when someone called out to Sara as they approached the colony, a friendly greeting from a local farmer, it seemed. Korra held her breath for a few terrible, aching moments as they passed. The journey became a little more comfortable after that, at least, as Sara was forced to go slower, act as though everything was normal. She was simply returning from a night of stargazing, checking up on the lab before heading for some rest.

When the vehicle finally came to a stop, she simply lay there for a moment enjoying that small reduction in her discomfort. She squinted as the blanket was lifted, expecting an unwelcome glare of light, but was pleasantly surprised to see Sara's face appear in a darkened room.  
"We're lucky the garage connects to the lab...we can get you in without anyone seeing, but I need you to stand up. Can you walk?"  
Korra grunted what she hoped was an affirmative, slowly forcing herself into a sitting position and from there, to her feet. The painkillers were starting to wear off and without her prior adrenaline to keep the pain at bay, she was struggling. She lost her footing stepping down and would have fallen had Sara not been there to catch her. She doubled over suddenly has a hacking cough fought it's way through her, dark blue flecks spraying on the floor at her feet.

Sara had fallen silent. The turian's weight was greater than that of an average humans and it was something of a struggle to support her. Both women were grimacing as Sara walked her into the surgery, doing her best to lay her gently on the bed. She turned away, then hesitated when she felt Korra's hard grip on her wrist. Turning back, she caught the woman's eye and saw fear. She was making low, gutteral noises in what she assumed was her native language, trying her best to communicate. Seeing that look, a look she had seen so many times before in her patients reflected n such alien eyes gave her a sudden burst of empathy for the injured woman. She reached out and took her hand, squeezing it lightly. "Korra. I'm going to help you. I promise. I need to run a few scans to see how your body works, I'm going to give you some stronger painkillers to help you sleep. When you wake up, you should feel a lot better."

She tried to pull away but Korra's hand remained, surprisingly strong despite her obvious weakness. Ger mouth twitched as she tried to form a word are could understand "P-pro...miz..." Her face was so different but she could still see her frustration at the language barrier. "Do you trust me Korra?"  
Her eyes narrowed slightly, peering into the humans. After a moment, her grip relaxed, she gave a weak nod an slumped back onto the cot, her eyes closing.

* * *

Several hours later, an exhausted Sara peeled blue stained gloves from her hands, tossing them into the waste bin. She would need to incinerate everything she had used, she thought. She couldn't risk any evidence of the non-human patient being found. She slumped against a workbench, watching Korra sleep an listening to the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor, the soft hiss of her breath. The operation had been a success, she had been able to isolate all of the internal injuries and mend them to the best of her abilities. The only issues had been getting past the alien's hard metallic plates; her skin was rough, irregular, difficult to cut cleanly and stitch back together. She had tried to be delicate but was worried that she had botched the job and that the cut would leave an ugly scar. She hoped Korra would be grateful enough for her life not to care.

Now that the excitement and urgency of the past couple of hours had started to wear off, she had time to think things over. What she had done- what she was continuing to do in helping Korra- could be considered treason by some of the more narrow minded military types she knew. She glanced wearily at her omni-tool, looking over a folder containing everything she had learned about turian physiology during her examinations. The tool's scan was fairly extensive but she had been able to add several pages worth of notes during and after the operation. She sighed heavily and closed the file, burying her face in her hands an trying to rub the tiredness out of her eyes. The responsible thing to do now would be to hand the notes over to Alliance Command for further study, straight after she informed them of the captured alien she had sedated. Her actions up to this point could be justified as humanitarian aid.

She wouldn't do that though. She couldn't...the truth was, she was scared. She was in completely out of her depth. And she had seen the fear in Korra's eyes. _Korra._ She had a name. She could understand her and was actively trying to communicate. This was no strange alien animal to be studied, this was an intelligent person. She had heard rumors of Alliance ships being destroyed while activating Mass Relays, everybody had, and she knew that Korra would be treated as a hostile combatant. Perhaps she was, perhaps Sara was a fool for wanting to protect her, but something inside her had just clicked. She would not allow anything to happen to this woman, the least she could do was protect her until she was strong enough and knowledgeable enough to make her own stand.

She glanced up at the clock. The planet's day an night cycle was only slightly longer than that of Earth's and the time read 10:32. The realisation that she had been awake for over 24 hours came down on her like a lead weight, the hour or so nap after finding the crashed shuttle was doing little to take the edge off. She desperately needed sleep but she knew she couldn't leave Korra here alone. She needed a place to stay until she was healed where she wouldn't be seen. Sara lived alone in a small apartment close to the lab, she would hopefully be safe there...getting her there though when she couldn't walk, that would be the difficult part.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the communicator on her tool suddenly beeped, causing her to let out a small cry. After a quick glance at Korra, she hurried into the small office beside the operating room to take the call. "Y-yes? Hello?"  
"Sara, hey, listen you need to get over here. Daniels is- you alright? You look like hell."  
She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing her forehead. Greg McCallum, the junior medical officer and one of her few true friends on the lonely colony, even if he was a bit of an ass. "Thanks, Greg...I'm fine. Just...long night."  
Even through the poor quality hologram she could see him rolling his eyes. "If I were talking to anyone else I'd make a joke about that. Shame that I know the closest thing to a man in your life is that bloody telescope." He paused and she thought she heard voices in the background. When he returned his attention to her, he was suddenly serious. "Look Sar, I don't know what's happening. The Corporal wants everyone gathered in the mess hall for some reason. You better get over here." Before she could reply, the call ended.

_The universe hates me. That's what's happening here. _She sighed and looked in on the sleeping turian. She would likely be out a while yet, there was nothing more she could to to help at the moment. It was important that she acted like nothing was wrong. Reluctantly, she splashed her face at the sink, did her best to make herself presentable, then locked up the lab and headed for the mess hall. Hopefully this wouldn't take long.


End file.
